7 Reasons I Keep Exam Gloves in My Kitchen

Notice the plate and silverware symbol on the side of the box indicating these are safe to use with food.

Rarely a day goes by that I don’t put on exam gloves. Most days it’s at my job as a sonographer (ultrasound tech), but there are many days I use them in the kitchen where they are surprisingly useful.

I prefer exam gloves over food-handler gloves (the clear, one-size-fits-all kind you see in restaurants and schools) because they fit more snugly and allow better tactile manipulation. I buy them at Costco for around $10 for 2 boxes which will last me between one and two years. You can also buy them in the medical supply section of almost any drugstore or grocery store.

Here are some ways I use them. Can’t wait to hear your ideas.

1. Open stubborn lids

This is one of my favorite uses–especially as I get older.

2. Prevent burned fingers

Exam gloves have wonderful insulating properties…to a point. Don’t use them to remove hot dishes from an oven. But if you are slicing hot meat, turning out hot muffins or baked goods, or handling hot veggies (perhaps hollowing out cooked potatoes or stuffing an eggplant), gloves will allow you to do it quickly and cleanly without burning your fingers. The little tart shells have just come out of the oven and without gloves they would be difficult to handle.

The corn on the cob you see above was cooked in the microwave per the instructions seen here, so that cob is HOT! You could use hot pads to hang on to the shucks, but they are awkward. I suggest exam gloves to make the job easy. By the way, if you haven’t seen this You Tube video about how to cook and shuck corn with no husks in the final product, you must! I’ve tried it and my life will never be the same. I’m eating more fresh corn on the cob than is probably good for a person.

3. Shield pastries or candy from body heat

When working with pastries that tend to be difficult as they get warm, e.g. pie crust or puff pastry, put on gloves to protect the food. If you are rolling cookie dough into balls or making candy, gloves will prevent your body heat from warming the dough and making it too sticky to handle. Works with ice cream balls, too.

4. Protect from unsociable odors

If you don’t want your hands to smell like garlic or onions when you shake hands with the President after fixing his next state dinner, wear gloves.

5. Barrier against natural toxins

6. No more discolored fingers

Peeling beets, squeezing citrus fruits, and extracting seeds from pomegranates or cherries are just a few of the times you might want to protect your fingers from food stains. It’s also a good way to avoid black fingers when polishing your grandmother’s silver.

7. Give the slip to sticky, slimy or gooey tasks

I’m sure you’ve already thought of this one but had to mention it anyway because it’s probably the number one reason I put these gloves on.

Some tasks are just better suited for hands. As we used to say at the Greenhouse (previous job), “Hands were made before spoons.” But some jobs are ickier than bowls of mysterious substances in a Halloween fun house. Filling pasta shells and mixing meatloaf or meatballs are just two of the many messy jobs made more tolerable with gloves.

P.S. My 3 yr. old grandson begs to put these gloves on every time he comes for a visit. I’m not really sure why they appeal but they seem to turn on his imagination.

Okay Paula, these are on my Costco list. I use these continually at the hospital but never would have thought of all these wonderful uses, thank you! You are so smart! Love, love, love your grandson! He is absolutely precious. I’m getting ready to have my first boy grandchild so I might need some “boy” lessons!
Oh, and you could add a #8 to your list; they make really fun balloons for kids when you blow them up and draw faces on them with sharpies!

Hi Chris,
I have not tried blowing them up at home–only at work. I know the grandson would love it. Somehow, I doubt if you need any “boy” lessons. How do you feel about late night football games? (instead of late-night teas, which is a fabulous idea, BTW)

I’m definitely all for this if they’re vinyl. Working in the medical field I know latex probably tricky since many have a sensitivity to it and I wouldn’t really want to handle food with them. But, LOVE vinyl gloves Use them for dyeing Easter Eggs every year as well.

Clever ideas! I end up washing my hands a lot when I’m in the kitchen, so maybe I’ll need to try this out. Especially with garlic and onion – I feel like my hands smell like that too often! And I’ve definitely had the pepper seed hands in the eye; not fun!

I do exactly the same! Maybe we both see their advantages because we work with them on a daily basis? I am a biochemist and wear those gloves all the time during experiments, for a variety of reasons (mainly avoiding contaminating my samples with damaging enzymes from my own skin)

anyway, I confess to bringing home a box from the lab and using for almost all the uses you mentioned, except one: pressing pastry dough. Will definitely do so from now on

Paula, WOW! Putting exam gloves on my list. I have never used them before because I didn’t realize they were food safe. I tried the plastic ones for like when I changed the kitty litter, but they always slide off my hands and are too slippery. Thank you for letting us know about this! Definitely going to try this!

Hi Vicki,
I’m not a fan of the plastic ones either. They seem almost dangerous when chopping things with a knife and are definitely not for fine detail work where they keep slipping around. Granted the exam gloves are more expensive but since I don’t really use that many, it’s worth it.

I was wondering about these types of gloves the other day – and you’ve demo’d some great uses! (Although, I have to admit, I read the lead sentence about them wrong and had to go back after I didn’t find the punch line as to why you used them if they “were not” to be used in the kitchen….oh, I hate it when I misread things!) I think I’ll invest in some of these gloves! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Paula! Fantastic post! I do wear gloves a lot in my kitchen, mainly for the same reasons you stated above, and I just love them! Not to mention that when you are in the middle of a messy job and your phone rings, you just have to remove your gloves, that is priceless I saw the pics with the kids playing with the gloves, have you ever blown the gloves as you would baloons? They just love it =D

Love it! I’ve tried some of the heavier “kitchen” gloves but hated how big and thick they are for some of the small intricate things we do in the kitchen. I had not thought of using this type of gloves like this in the kitchen, but you can bet I will be picking some up. I especially hate it when I put something in the crock pot in the morning and can smell garlic or onion on my hands the entire day. Great post!

Great list! I think #5 is incredibly important. I once had burning fingertips for 2 days after chopping up hot peppers (to my dismay no natural home remedies would remove the oils). Never again! I always wear gloves now!

Great ideas, I have a box sitting in my kitchen drawer, left over from my now 24 year old sons last hs biology class, now I know what to do with them, never though about using them when cooking what great ideas.

In the hispanic kitchen, we love using lots of fragrant and colorful seasonings, such as garlic, herbs, annato, vinegar, “adobo” and “sazón” mixed together as a rub to apply inside and out the meat to be cooked to assure flavor in every bite, so I keep a box of these gloves for this purpose. Food is delicious, hands keep clean…Works great!!;)

Gr eat post, great ideas and an adorable grandson! I use these gloves for most of the same reasons you do. I also wear them when I make my homemade hamburger patties. I scoop up the required amount of meat with my measuring cup and pat the patties together with these gloves on. Works wonderfully and simply toss the gloves when the patties are packaged and ready for the freezer.

Okay, so I went to the garage and dug out my box of gloves from the painting supplies cabinet and put the box in the kitchen. Now if I can just remember where I put them when I get ready to paint again.

Thrilled to see someone else using these. When I got married I was 100% vegetarian… My husband was 100% meat eater, red meat every day. I had never even bought raw chicken before!!
I prep all our meat with these gloves on = my husband gets great meat dishes + I don’t spend all my time throwing up or scrubbing my hands. Perfect for mixing and rolling meatballs etc.
Thanks for the other ideas.

Paula,
I have luckily, through what must be serendipity, found your blog and am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. Thank you for all the time and energy you devote to making it easy and more immediately scrumptious for the rest of us!
I have struggled with using throw away gloves because they rip so easily but, I have been purchasing prepackaged and colorful ones. Never thought to use good old exam gloves! Thank you!

I have been using these gloves for years. Started with mixing meatloaf, realized that most raw meat, egg, and general “messy food” handling would be safer and easier to clean up when I use gloves. Dismantling a supermarket roasted chicken is my latest favorite use. Also want to say that I will frequently wash my hands (still in gloves) when moving raw foods around or switching to new cutting boards. They fit so well that you can “clean up” and move on to a new job without wasting many pairs on one meal.

Ubermeme,
Glad you mentioned how nicely these gloves fit your hands. Not only is it safer when you are handling a knife, it is, like you said, easy to wash your gloved hands when necessary (like answering the phone.)

I use them for dying my hair and when using cleansers. I also keep a pair in my purse when visiting family to help wash dishes if they serve a food I can’t stand. My husband wears them when handling garbage bags.

Your picture of Kent with the gloves reminded me of a cute trick my grandkids really liked when they were pre-school age. I had a macaroni box with the cellophane window in half of the box. When I had used about 2/3 of the contents, I discovered that when I turned the box upside down, the remaining macaroni “disappeared” in that little window. I called it the “magic box”, and they loved to get in the drawer pull it out. (Of course I did have to tape the box shut.) That macaroni was about 2 years old when I finally threw it away.

I like the gloves’ protection when I’m skinning tomatoes for canning. They really do protect somewhat from the heat of the water the tomatoes are sitting in and when using them for other foods in the kitchen, I also wash my “hands”, gloves and all with soap and water.

I have to agree w/Angie above-I hate the thought of touching chicken with my bare hands.
We also use them when putting up bushels of chile, life saver for burning your skin while peeling and de-seeding them.

I have arthritis in my hands and handling cold hamburger meat really makes my hands ache. So when I am making out hamburger patties, or mixing & shaping a meatloaf, I pu on a pair of the “dr. gloves”. They keep my hands from getting cold & achy, & make for really easy clean-up.

Just found a reference to your website on Susan Voisin’s Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I’ve really enjoyed “looking around” and reading the comments from other readers, especially the one from the lady with the omnivore husband.
Since my husband and I are Vegan, we cannot use all of your recipes, but some can be adjusted. And the ideas, such as this one, about using gloves is inspired.
Also enjoyed reading your suggestions about kitchen utensils. I have some of them, and especially like my pastry scraper. I use mine primarily to scoop us my chopped veggies to transfer them from the cutting board to the pan.
Thanks for having such an interesting, useful website.

Just found your blog and I’m enjoying it. In the winter, when my skin gets extra dry, I put lotion on my hands and then put gloves on before washing dishes, cooking, etc. I used to avoid using lotion because I didn’t want to get it on everything I touched and have to wash it off when I needed to do things in the kitchen (especially touching food). Now I can moisturize whenever I want without worrying about that.

So glad you confirmed that I’m not a crazy person like my family thinks…they make fun of my gloves but I’m the one who doesn’t have raw meat, bits of dough or rotisserie chicken under my fingernails! Another fun use at Halloween…fill with water, add red food coloring (or whatever color matches your decor), close it up and freeze it. Create a Halloween punch, remove the glove from the frozen “hand” and let it float in the punch bowl..creepy!